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Agency owners may receive requests for proposals (RFPs) from businesses requesting their services, however they would be wise to consider the potential time and budgeting restraints responding to RFPs will have on their agency.

When you respond to an RFP, you risk taking talented team members away from your current business to spend time on a project that may not even see itself to fruition. Even worse, the business who sent out the RFP could even use your work without giving your business proper credit (or payment).

Below, seven agency executives from Forbes Agency Council share the reasons why agencies should consider not responding to an RFP.

The main reason for your agency to ignore RFPs is the time you'll waste. While RFPs used to signify genuine interest in your agency, they're now blanket applications that are often requests for free work. Companies will send out blanket RFPs requesting detailed answers to their marketing issues, then instead of hiring an agency they just compile the answers in the RFP responses and move on. –Brandon Stapper, Non Stop Signs

2. They're Disorganized

Most RFPs are scatter-shot, just like bad PR pitches. Most RFPs are literally just PDF documents put out there for you to put the effort into, with no guarantee they'll even get read, let alone absorbed. It's a lazy system created to benefit those who prefer wordy documents over actual results. We don't answer them as an agency policy. – Ed Zitron, EZPR

3. They Don't Facilitate Partnerships

Traditional RFPs don't have any real personality in them. Good clients (and agencies for that matter) want to work with folks who understand them, their teams and their culture, and want to become a partner -- not just another agency or client. RFPs don't allow for true partnerships to be born; instead they are based on the lowest bidder or the best-looking proposal (which was all provided for free). – Fritz Heffinger, OutCold

4. They Don't Fairly Evaluate Capabilities

The entire RFP model is supposed to be "apples to apples," but it usually ends up being a race to landing whoever can do it at the cheapest rate. I run a quality-centric design consultancy and we will never come in at the low end of the stick as we deliver high-quality solutions. RFIs should be the new RFPs. Getting info about a particular agency is helpful; jumping through hoops isn't. – Lee Salisbury, UnitOneNine

In order to craft a truly customized solution for a prospect, you will need to pull in your creative team on an RFP. That means you’re likely pulling them away from billable client deliverables and projects. In the end, you’ve spent valuable time and resources with no guarantee that your agency will be selected, or worse yet, you’ve just given away creative concepts with no payment. – Jenna Gross, Moving Targets

6. They Solicit Multiple Agencies

If there's more than four agencies participating in an RFP, you should consider passing. Unless you have some backroom understanding of your chances in the RFP or are a clear category leader where you can tell the story better than anyone, turn it down. The numbers are not on your side. It's especially perilous if you have no prior relationship with the client as it's likely someone else does. – Andrew Howlett, Rain

7. They Don't Guarantee Business

Unless you are a seasoned agency with many large representative clients, the probability of winning a competitive RFP is very low. Successfully winning an RFP requires a significant allocation of time and resources. The risk is that all of your hard work may be for nothing more than a time dump when the same time and resources could be spent building your business through inbound marketing. – Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com

Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only organization for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Find out if you qualify at forbesagencycouncil.com/qualify.